Orientation matters.
A big wave surfer once told me that when you are plunged deep by a massive wave, you mustn’t waste your energy attempting to swim to the surface, for the direction you choose will inevitably be wrong. You must instead submit to the wave, relax, and wait for your inevitable rise. To expend precious energy in the absence of clear orientation can be fatal.
Life too is dangerous when we fail to properly orient ourselves, and accordingly order it. For example, think about who you take financial, career, or medical advice from. I’d imagine (or at least hope) your answer would be experts who are able to provide perspective and wisdom to accurately orient you. For to errantly place someone without the skills and expertise in one of these critical positions involves substantial risk.
And yet we do so time and again. So often, we trust our own limited knowledge and experience over that of experts. We refuse to recognize how ignorant we truly are and so endanger our futures. Sadly we do it on an even grander scale as well:
“What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. they pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life.”
How often I switch seats with God and then wonder why everything goes sideways. In my heart and mind I recognize his providence, but I fail to translate that in action. I instead treat him akin to a respected philosopher / author rather than the supreme.
We have trivialized God and so confused ourselves. For if there is not an omnipotent being in control, we must assume that mantle. A mantle none of us are equipped or ready for. And if there is no supreme, we are suddenly absent purpose and direction.
Life only begins to make sense when we are properly oriented. When people and things are given their warranted authority in our lives. I would encourage you to look at the areas your life bringing you confusion and frustration this week. Wisdom would tell us those may be areas of skewed orientation.